Halifax firm big player in Avengers movie tie-in

Nathan Kroll at the Ad-Dispatch office in Dartmouth with the company's new augmented reality iPad app in the foreground. (ADRIEN VECZAN / Staff)

What do you get when you combine a star-studded cast, comic book heroes and villains, cutting-edge technology and two of the biggest players in show business?

Validation and a great day at the office for the Ad-Dispatch team.

As a world leader in augmented reality technology, big name retailers are lining up to get a piece of the technology the Dartmouth firm is developing.

Disney-owned Marvel Entertainment and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were the first in line, ready to take in-store marketing to the next level.

In advance of the much-anticipated premiere of The Avengers, the three companies teamed up to deliver an interactive, augmented-reality, marketing campaign that just days after its release is drawing crowds and wowing the tech industry.

Over the course of three months, dozens of Ad-Dispatch programmers, game developers and 3-D modellers teamed up to create the Super Hero AR application.

“It’s absolutely insane what’s going on in the U.S. with this technology,” Ad-Dispatch CEO Nathan Kroll said Tuesday.

He tiptoed around his words, careful not to violate any of the strict agreements the company signed with Marvel and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Using a device, such as a smartphone, tablet or personal computer, augmented reality technology brings characters to life on clothing and merchandise. The magic happens when the device, enabled by a special application, recognizes specific visual triggers that awaken the character and other images, creating an interactive experience.

Once the application is downloaded, users scan dedicated Avengers displays — available only in U.S. Walmart stores — to get the action started.

Hawkeye is the first superhero out of the gate, then it's up to the customer, standing in a store aisle, to collect the superpowers of the five remaining Avengers — Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow and Captain America — before they can defeat the Avengers’ antagonist, the super-villain Loki, and save the world.

The application also offers a photo-capture mode where customers can take pictures of themselves with their favourite characters depicted as 3-D models on its in-store promotions.

The combination of a basic retail strategy that uses mobile applications to create an engaging in-store experience is a real tipping point for the technology, Kroll said.

And the fact that Marvel and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. get all of the credit, is just fine.

“We’ve spent years developing our (augmented reality) technology and we really do believe the tools we’re using are the best,” he said. “In the mainstream media there’s no reason to mention us, but within the industry, we’re making waves. Big waves.”

Founded in 1999, this new-found success follows years of taking risks and meeting and challenges.

“We’ve expanded and expanded again in the last years,” Kroll said. “We’re literally doubling in size every four months, everything from the space we need, the people and the projects.”

Augmented reality “is exploding for us right now and I’m not sure it’s going to slow down. We’re already working with other major brands, including one that’s Canadian.”